Domino's Pizza in New Zealand has announced a partnership with drone delivery company, Flirtey.
Their mission? To deliver pizzas through the air. While the idea certainly sounds great, the service has yet to receive approval from New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Domino's and Flirtey said they expect to be able to start deliveries later this year, when (or if?) they get the green light.
Domino Group CEO Don Meij said, “These deliveries will help create the ground we need to expand the payload and range of drones.”
"We are planning a phased approach based on CAA approval as we learn about the potential of drone delivery for our products, both Domino's and Flirtey. We aim to work together to make this a reality for our customers," he added.
Flirtey was behind the first drone delivery, which was a shipment of medicine in the US in July last year. Since then, they have made a number of deliveries, but commercial drone deliveries are still a ways off.
A particular problem in the US is the Federal Aviation Administration's rules regarding drone weight, speed, etc.
A spokesperson from New Zealand's CAA confirmed that it "approved the use of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) for an advertisement filmed a few years ago," but no ongoing UAV service has been approved before.
Under current CAA rules in New Zealand, drones cannot fly at night, must remain within the pilot's line of sight, and cannot have a total weight of more than 25 kilograms (55.1 pounds).
One day there may be pizzas flying in the air, but for now, we'll have to stick to the old-fashioned way of delivery.
